In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Two Gallants handily win the award for the hardest-working band in the Bay Area this month. With a new album, We Are Undone, garnering great reviews—and with two new songs making their live premiere with KQED’s video series Main Stage—the local duo kicks off a ton of touring in North America and Europe over the next four months with three nights of back-to-back local shows.
Two Gallants aren’t the only locals with a new record. This month’s podcast kicks off with a new song from the always-reliable Sonny & The Sunsets. We’ve also included a new one from local post-rockers The Union Trade, and new heavy-psych tracks from Mondo Drag and Planes of Satori.
February also means the return of the Noise Pop Festival at the end of the month. Now in its twenty-third (!) year, the 2015 fest unites over a hundred local and touring bands for a whole lot of exciting shows in local venues. We’ve included four Noise Pop bands in this mix—including a psychy mini-set featuring Jessica Pratt, The Shivas, and Six Organs of Admittance—but countless others could have also made the cut. Consider that a testament to the festival’s continued vitality in its third decade.
You don’t need to wait until Noise Pop to catch some excellent touring bands, including rare local appearances by Montreal’s TOPS and Swedish band The Mary Onettes. Both groups offer engaging variations on dream pop; TOPS explores more spartan, insular sounds, while The Mary Onettes deliver big, dense anthems.
